Poems and Fragments QUOTES

1 " Suddenly
Dawn in gold sandals "

― Sappho , Poems and Fragments

3 " Come to me now and loosen me
from blunt agony. Labor
and fill my heart with fire. Stand by me
and be my ally. "

― Sappho , Poems and Fragments

5 " Blest as the immortal gods is he,
The youth who fondly sits by thee,
And hears and sees thee, all the while,
Softly speaks and sweetly smile.

'Twas this deprived my soul of rest,
And raised such tumults in my breast;
For, while I gazed, in transport tossed,
My breath was gone, my voice was lost;

My bosom glowed; the subtle flame
Ran quick through all my vital frame;
O'er my dim eyes a darkness hung;
My ears with hollow murmurs rung;

In dewy damps my limbs were chilled;
My blood with gentle horrors thrilled:
My feeble pulse forgot to play;
I fainted, sunk, and died away. "

― Sappho , Poems and Fragments

7 " Like a gale smiting an oak
On mountainous terrain,
Eros, with a stroke,
Shattered my brain. "

― Sappho , Poems and Fragments

9 " Hesperus, you are
The most fetching star.
What Dawn flings afield
You bring back together -
Sheep to the fold, goats to the pen,
And the child to his mother again.

Nightingale,
All you sing
Is desire;
You are the crier
Of coming spring "

― Sappho , Poems and Fragments

11 " Some call ships, infantry or horsemen
The greatest beauty earth can offer;
I say it is whatever a person
Most lusts after.

Showing you all will be no trouble:
Helen surpassed all humankind
In looks but left the world's most noble
Husband behind,

Coasting off to Troy where she
Thought nothing of her loving parents
And only child but, led astray...

... and I think of Anaktoria
Far away,...

And I would rather watch her body
Sway, her glistening face flash dalliance
Than Lydian war cars at the ready
And armed battalions. "

― Sappho , Poems and Fragments

13 " In Ancient Greek literature male poets tend not simply to portray women as lecherous but to attribute to them a species of lust different from that of males: a subhuman and automatic reflex, an animalistic urge. Sappho is important because she gives a fulle human voice to female desire for the first time in Western history. Since she defiantly chooses the quintessential love-object Helen of Troy as her freethinking agent, she seems fully conscious of the revolutionary claim she is making. "

― Sappho , Poems and Fragments

15 " Prayer to Afroditi

On your dappled throne eternal Afroditi,
cunning daughter of Zeus,
I beg you, do not crush my heart

with pain, O lady,

but come here if ever before
you heard my voice from far away,
and yielding left your father's house

of gold and came,

yoking birds to your chariot. Beautiful
quick sparrows whirring on beating wings
took you from heaven down to mid sky

over the black earth

and soon arrived. O blessed one,
on your deathless face a smile,
you asked me what I am suffering

and why I call you,

what I most want to happen
in my crazy heart. "Whom shall I persuade
again to take you into her love? Who,

O Psapfo, wrongs you?

If she runs away, soon she will pursue.
If she scorns gifts, now she will bribe.
If she doesn't love, soon she will love

even unwillingly."

Come to me now and loosen me
from blunt agony. Labor
and fill my heart with fire. Stand by me

and be my ally.

― Sappho , Poems and Fragments

17 " Plato calls her ‘the tenth Muse’; Strabo ‘a marvel’, and adds ‘In all the centuries since history began we know of no woman who could be said with any approach to truth to have rivalled her as a poet.’ To us, of all the ancient Greek poets, she stands supreme ... "

― Sappho , Poems and Fragments